BEXLEY: Ian Clement - the council leader, the credit card, the meals and the five-hour hotel stay

Bexley Council has made some of the expenses public but is still conducting its own internal investigation into Mr Clement's claims while he was leader.

He remains the only Bexley councillor ever to have asked for and been given a council credit card, although more than 80 council officers have one.

Its rules for use state: "This card should only be used for transactions appertaining to Bexley Council. Personal expenditure is not permitted."

Yet Mr Clement was allowed to run up a personal bill of £1,220 between December 2007 and May 2008.

This included a £364 bill for a hotel in Cologne on December 28, 2007, and another hotel bill for £513 at the Park Plaza Hotel. The hotel was used by Boris Johnson (below) as his campaign headquarters for the London mayoral election, in which Mr Clement played a major part. The stay was on May 4, three days after Mr Johnson's victory.

Other personal spending using the council's credit card were a £161 meal at the Oxo Tower restaurant and another meal at the Old Bexley Greek Taverna in Bexley Village, where the bill was £103.

Bexley Council told News Shopper the use of the card was checked monthly.

It said: "The council monitored the use of the card and the reimbursement of personal expenses.

"It was Mr Clement's responsibility to ensure he only used the card for expenditure relating to his council duties."

Bexley said no-one at the council had given Mr Clement authorisation to use the council card for personal spending.

It said no other card holder had used it for personal expenditure.

As well as his personal spending, the statements between July 2007 and April 2008, the only ones released by Bexley, show Mr Clement spent almost £3,000 of council taxpayers' money.

How the money was spent

July 16, 2007 - Mr Clement takes a member of a Chamber of Commerce to lunch at Ferrari's restaurant in Bexley Village, costing £44.72. There is no information about who his guest was, or why the meeting took place over lunch.

August 28, 2007 - He treated Bob Neill (pictured below), London Assembley member for Bromley and Bexley and also, by then, MP for Bromley, to a £53.61 meal also at Ferrari's restaurant.The meal was described as "lunch", but the bill was paid 10.17pm. No explanation why.

September 14, 2007 - Mr Clement lunched with someone from Hay Consulting, a consultancy firm used by Bexley. The lunch costing £30.75 was taken at Zizi, a restaurant right opposite the civic offices. But there is no explanation why Bexley treated one of its consultants to a restaurant lunch.

October 11, 2007 - He had a £55 lunch at Med Kitchens restaurant in Kensington with Merrick Cockell, Tory leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council and chairman of London Councils, the umbrella group for London boroughs. No reason given for the meeting.

October 15, 2007 - Mr Clement had lunch at The Table restaurant in Southwark Street while attending a London Councils meeting, having already claimed breakfast. The lunch cost Bexley £17.

October 22, 2007 - Another lunch with a representative of London Councils, but no clue as to their identity. The lunch at Ferrari's in Bexley Village cost £23.57. No reason given for the meeting.

October 31 and November 3, 2007 - Mr Clement claimed £90.57. Bexley Council said: "We were informed by Mr Clement all three items were incidental expenditure relating to the course". The course in question was the BT leadership course which necessitated Mr Clement travelling twice to the USA and which cost the council £7,000. No detailed breakdown of the £7,000 has been revealed by the council. Mr Clement left the council just months after completing the course.

November 21 and November 23, 2007 - Mr Clement spent £170.37 on a hotel at Gatwick Airport. He booked his car in at 11.29pm on November 20 and booked out of the hotel at 5am. The car parking bill, paid on November 23, was £60.60. Bexley Council told News Shopper: "Mr Clement was departing from Gatwick on the 6.30am flight to Amsterdam for a study tour relating to the Thames Gateway Partnership, of which Bexley is a member. He felt it appropriate to stay at Gatwick in order to make sure he caught his flight." The car journey from Mr Clement's home in Crayford to Gatwick during the daytime takes just 50 minutes.

November 30, 2007 - Mr Clement treats former Bexley chief executive Nick Johnson to an £86.40 meal courtesy of Bexley Council taxpayers at London restaurant Le Pont de la Tour. Mr Johnson, then 54, had retired on November 4 from his £203,000 Bexley job on ill-health grounds, with a full pension and a six-figure settlement. Just four months later he took a new £125,000 job with Hammersmith and Fulham Homes, an off-shoot of Hammersmith and Fulham Council. No reason is available for the lunch.

February 1, 2008 - Mr Clement is back at Le Pont de la Tour for lunch, this time with Bexley's chief executive designate, Will Tuckley (below), who was confirmed in the £180,000 job the following week. Mr Clement spent £109 on the lunch. Again, no reason has been given.

February 19, 2008 - And it is off to the favoured London restaurant for a third lunch, this time with a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) and costing £83.19. Bexley says the meeting was with Cindy Butts, the MPA's deputy chairman and the meeting was "in connection with Mr Clement's role as an executive member of London Councils".

February 21, 2008 - Mr Clement is lunching at Bexley's expense with a member of Bexley Voluntary Service Council (BVSC). The lunch at Ferrari's in Bexley Village cost £27.34, but there is no explanation why any meeting could not have taken place at the civic offices or at BVSC's offices.

February 26, 2008 - Back to Ferrari's for a £68.85 lunch on Bexley Council taxpayers with someone from the Chamber of Commerce. Again, there is no explanation for why this meeting had to take place over lunch paid for by Bexley Council.

February 28, 2008 - £16 was charged to Bexley for a "police briefing" at the Cafe Noir near New Scotland Yard at 3.50pm. No explanation on why the briefing was not at New Scotland Yard or back at Bexley's civic offices. Bexley will only say the briefing was provided by Bexley chief executive Will Tuckley and Bexley cabinet member for community services, Councillor Katie Perrior.

March 11, 2008 - Lunch for two at La Pont de la Tour. Mr Clement said the meeting was with someone from Liberal Democrat-run Sutton Council. No explanation of why Mr Clement was meeting someone from Sutton Council or why Bexley was footing the £92.14 bill.

April 10, 2008 - Mr Clement spends £159 on lunch for himself and three others at Livebait restaurant in Waterloo. He described it as "lunch with Bexley Community Safety Partnership", although the bill was paid at 10.02pm. News Shopper understands the other three guests were Cllr Katie Perrior, Maureen Holkham, Bexley's assistant director of community services, and Bexley borough police commander Chief Superintendent Tony Dawson (below). There are normally regular monthly briefing meetings with the partnership. Bexley told News Shopper the meeting was held in London because Mr Clement and Cllr Perrior were in London that day. The paper could not get an answer to why the meeting had to be held on that day if two people were in London or why it could not have been held on an alternative day in Bexley. Nor would Bexley explain why the meeting had to be held over an expensive lunch.

April 22 and 23, 2008 - Mr Clement attended an AIRTO (Association of Independent Research and Technology Organisation) exhibition at the ExCel Centre London in Canary Wharf. Bexley says Mr Clement was there at the invitation of the Thames Innovation Centre (TIC) in Thamesmead, where Mr Clement, on behalf of the council, was a board member, and which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the council. TIC is a member of AIRTO and the exhibition was apparently attended by other TIC board members. His attendance cost the council more than £175 including a £154.32 overnight stay at the four-star Park Plaza Hotel and a £9.40 cab journey. The stay was just seven days before the London mayoral election. The Park Plaza was used by Boris Johnson's team, which included Mr Clement, as their campaign headquarters.

In all, from the expenses made public and claimed between July 2007 and April 2008, Mr Clement charged Bexley £870 travelling expenses, including a first class return to Birmingham for the Local Government Association (LGA) conference which cost £201.

His meals out, lunches, coffees and sandwiches cost £1,417.52 and his three hotel stays, at Birmingham for the LGA conference, the Park Plaza for the AIRTO exhibition and five hours at a hotel at Gatwick Airport cost £667.

Many of the expenses were legitimate charges to the council, but others may need more scrutiny.

Bexley Council apparently paid for all of them.

During his time as council leader Mr Clement was also paid almost £34,429 in allowances, excluding expenses.

Bexley says it is not prepared to say what, if any, action it will take once its investigations are complete.

Questions not answered

In total News Shopper has asked Bexley 47 questions so far about the expenses.

Among those not yet answered are:

- Why Bexley sanctioned so many lunches, many of them at London restaurants?

- Why did no-one question why Mr Clement needed to take so many people out to lunch at Bexley's expense?

- What criteria governs a stay at a hotel paid for by Bexley Council?

- What rules are in place for claiming refreshments and meals while atttending meetings on Bexley's behalf?

- What limits are laid down by Bexley for claiming meals and hotel expenses?

- Is Bexley checking all Mr Clement's expenses claims or just those claimed on the council credit card?

- Was Mr Clement ever challenged or warned about his expenses claims to the council?